Sweet Distraction

 

 

 

 

While I'm trying to work, I keep looking down and seeing this sweet nugget smiling at me. I'm so easily distracted by him. I mean, look at that face...I just want to nibble on his cheeks. And when I ask him a question, he shoots me the cutest little smile plus a pterodactyl sound to go with it. Right now, as I type, I'm posting pictures of him instead of working. Oops.

Some Of My Favorites

 

 

 

 

 

 

Memorial Day weekend, we were in Charleston to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Baby George, via Julie Cochran. We had such a great time celebrating with her. I will say, however, that the best part was hanging at the Brantley's dock on Memorial Day with Julie and Margaret. Though I didn't win any parenting awards for sunscreen application that day, we had one of my favorite days on the water in a long time. And Harrison might have developed a baby crush on Julie...he seems to be getting a lot of those these days. Julie, thanks a bunch for the pictures. They are wonderful and captured our day perfectly.

We Tried To Get A Picture...

 

But this is all we could manage to get on Father's Day. All three of my boys...I love them to pieces. And Adam can't believe that this was his fourth father's day...crazy.

Yay For New Blog Design

Major Kudos to Megan Simon, a design guru, for creating a new blog for me and allowing me to be a little bit cooler.

To Three or Not to Three...

This post could be long, so I don't recommend reading it. Since we got pregnant with Fisher we decided that two kids would complete our family. And after we had him, it really did feel complete. My big question for myself these days "does it feel complete for now or are we for sure, done?" Since I can't answer that question 100%, we aren't going to do anything drastic, but five days out of the week, I wish we would go ahead and do it.
Now that I've had my second, everyone tells us the transition from 1 to 2 is much harder than 2 to 3. And I can see that. When you have one child, you still have some free time, but when you add the second in there, your free time is reduced significantly. And resting just after you have the baby is just not as possible when you have another child running around. So, getting used to our "new normal" was a change, but we were most definitely in our grove by 6-8 weeks. The whole transition to life with three wouldn't be that hard. I think life as a whole would be harder (for us). Adam and I are functioning really well in man to man defense. Zone defense would be a totally different story. To me, that is scary. Especially since Adam doesn't handle stress well, and I don't handle frusturation well. I do think those are two totally different things by the way. Which leads to the question, and for me, the most important question, "Can Adam and I parent three kids well?" I'm not so sure. And then there is this "having a baby" thing too. I'm already missing the sweet newborn phase. I'm missing that a lot more now than I did with Harrison...and that probably is because I know that we won't have anymore kids. But that is a terrible reason to have another child. I'll probably look back at this post when Fisher is 18 months and think that there is absolutely no way I can have another child (18 months to 2 1/2 years of Harrison was the toughest for me). I do want to note that I'm just saying all of this as it relates to our family. I know that people parent 3 or more kids really well and it works great for them...I just don't know for us. Here is the good news...I don't have a gun to my head to make me decide this right now.
As a side note, who the heck does Fisher look like? I've looked back at Harrison's baby pictures and they don't look the same at all...and it is so darn hard to look past those big ole eyes to see if there are other features that are similar. And he doesn't look like our baby pictures either.

Too Excited Not to Post Immediately...

Harrison water-skied today! He wasn't on two separate skis, but it was pretty darn close to the real thing. While staying at my uncle's house, we took the opportunity to see if Harrison would do it. Because he saw his kid's do it, I think he didn't think twice about it. He absolutely loved it until he got up with Adam. Adam's skis from circa 1950 were spraying him and he was definitely not a fan of it. But it was so hilarious. Harrison loved it and we can't wait to get him out there again. I'm so proud of that kid. Oh, and the boy in the picture with him is our cousin, Spencer, who is 4 years-old and first got up on skis before he was one! My uncle's family are little ski-ninjas. Seriously...you should see them...well, and him. He taught Adam to barefoot today in about .2 seconds.

Things I Could Never See Myself Doing

There is a little mental list that I started in college of "things that I can't see myself doing." I'd like to think that, well especially in college, I could do anything I set my mind to. But there is a handful of items that induced a chuckle when I tried to imagine myself doing them. #1 on that list, was being a mom. It isn't that I thought being a mom was unattainable; it was more that I couldn't see myself doing it...everyday. And frankly, I never liked to baby-sit.
Another thing on that list is gardening. Again, it isn't that I despised the activity. I just thought it wouldn't be my thing. My mom certainly never gardened. However, just a month ago, I've finally planted a garden. Go ahead and laugh...I can't see myself doing it either. And despite the drought, it is still alive. I would not consider myself a gardener...in fact, I probably never will consider myself a gardener. One thing I do know is that we have all sorts of stuff growing in our yard and we are having a blast.

5 Month Summary

Five Months Out...I don't even know what to think about that. Here is a summary:
1. Started on solids (see picture) and I forgot exactly how frusturating this is for all parties involved. However, I'm beginning to wonder if the little piece of your tongue that was clipped at birth hinders your eating ability.
2. In the past two days, I've just stopped waking you up in the morning and at your naps. I'm always super nervous about stopping this as I am a firm believer in developing a happy wake-up disposition in your babies. I know that it happens between 4 and 6 months, and so far you are just a delight when you wake up. You just hang out in your crib until I come to get you.
3. If you see the bottle, you have to have it in your mouth...in fact, it is still a very bad idea to not have a bottle ready prior to getting you out of bed. By the way, you are chunking up a lot and when you act like that it makes people think that I never feed you...so please stop acting like we are hurting you...we aren't and you know it.
4. You still sleep and nap like a champ (which I'm always hesitant to say). However, you much prefer to sleep in your bed...sleeping in the car seat is on its way out it seems and there is definitely no sleeping in our arms (as you so clearly expressed at church this morning when you were beyond tired).
5. Your brother still brings the biggest smile to your face.
6. Every person that sees you for the first time comments on your eyes. People either say, "Oh, my gosh...look at those big eyes," or "I can't believe how alert he is." We find the latter of the two the funniest as you clearly aren't unusually alert. It is the size of your eyes that makes you seem that way.
7. You stopped trying to crawl (victory, mom), but you are sitting-up, sort of.
And at this moment, you are a little bit sick, which makes me sad. However, I'm super thankful that you don't mind having your temperature checked in the rear as I'm having to do that frequently.

End of the Year Blues

Harrison is no longer going to be the youngest kid at school. We switched schools after last year and all this year, he has been in the youngest class. Now, he is moving up. The thought of my child not being the youngest is weird. In my mind, he is still the fragile two year-old that entered last fall. When he first started school, his words were still hard to understand and he seemed desperately shy. But the fact is, he is a different boy today from last August. He is growing up. He has made friends that I know he will have for a lifetime, which makes me so excited. And when his little brother made his way into the world this year, for two months, Harrison would exclaim upon entering his class "hey everybody...my baby brother, Fisher, is here. Do you want to see him?" I love that he has learned the Lord's Prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, and so many other things. I also love that any teacher he comes into contact with tells me just how sweet Harrison Brantley is. And he is sweet...so sweet. I love that he has learned about God's love for him. I love that at school he learned that Jesus died so we could live a full life. I love that I can already see the compassionate and "includer" side of him. Sweet Harrison, your daddy and I are so proud of you. We thank our Lord everyday for the joy you bring to our lives. We pray that you are going to be a leader among your buddies at school, and that you continue to love with gentleness and compassion.

Love Bug

Sweet Fisher... We love you so much. Your smiles are so huge and contagious. You have a few more opinions about life than I think most babies your age do, but that keeps us on our toes. On another note...you have the stinkiest diapers on the planet. Harrison and I both gag. And long after they have been removed, we can still smell it. For a cute little love bug like you, you sure do smell terrible. Everyone keeps telling me it is payback. I'm not so sure what they are talking about. But be sweet to me or I'm going to tell your future wife about this...just kidding...maybe.